Ovambanderu chief calls for reconciliation

THE officially recognised chief of the Ovambanderu community, which is deeply divided by a leadership succession brawl, has called on his people reconcile and to heal the divisions.

‘We have to resolve issues and find a common understanding on how to manage them and I am ready to commence this dialogue,’ Chief Keharanjo Nguvauva said at a press briefing on Monday afternoon.Government announced just before Christmas that a special investigative commission had recommended Keharanjo as the successor to his late father instead of his older half-brother Kilus Nguvauva.In his first meeting with the press since the announcement, the 23-year-old Chief called on each omuMbanderu ‘to reach out to others in their own way’.After Chief Munjuku Nguvauva died in January 2008, both Keharanjo and Kilus, who is the Deputy Fisheries Minister, claimed to be the rightful successor, which divided the community into two groups.One of these, the Concerned Group under Senior Traditional Councillor Erastus Kahuure, went ahead and inaugurated Keharanjo in August 2008 as the new Chief according to traditional rites. This angered the Ovambanderu Traditional Authority (OTA), the group supporting Kilus. ‘For meaningful dialogue to take place, a conducive atmosphere has to prevail. This will only be possible if we revert to our cultural norms that dictate for instance how people should accommodate each other during difficult times such as burials,’ Keharanjo said on Monday. ‘It is sad to notice that our funerals have lately been turned into avenues for driving the current divisions within our community. This should not be allowed to continue.’According to him, the pronouncement of the Ministry of Local and Regional Government on who the successor should be had not created a winner or a loser, ‘but created a real opportunity for the Ovambanderu people to end our dispute and to engage in a meaningful dialogue to seek a lasting solution’.’It is important for all of us to embrace this rare opportunity. The leadership of the Ovambanderu people does not only revolve around chieftaincy. It encompasses all aspects of our daily cultural norms, rituals, our flag, sacred places, traditional courts and many other activities that hold us together as a people,’ he said. Keharanjo has convened a meeting of the governing council of the Ovambanderu Supreme Council on Sunday to deliberate on developmental initiatives to be undertaken for the community and ways to reconcile the divided community. The Kilus group has rejected the Ministry’s decision and vowed to fight it with all legal means at their disposal.